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This is the second part of a two-part interview.
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Keeping the Faith 3a: Cody Anderson–Cultivating the seeds of faith, pt 1
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Cody Anderson was an exemplary young member of the Church. As a teen, he was an Eagle Scout, a quorum president, and had experienced a spiritual conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But as he began to encounter opposition and sin, he became discouraged and developed a sense of shame and unworthiness. He began to attend church less frequently and he gradually stopped reading the scriptures and praying. Eventually, he encountered anti-Mormon literature and found a rational justification for his disaffection from the Church. For a number of years, he pursued a lifestyle that was simply guided by his base desires. While some people like Cody never return to the Church, he instead returned to full activity, became sealed in the temple, and now volunteers for FAIR. In this interview, he explains what it was that brought him back into the Church and provides some insight into why some people leave the Church, and what friends and family members can do to help them return.
FAIR’s Front Page app for Android
If you would like to read FAIR’s Front Page without using the full FAIR app that was announced yesterday, there is also now an app just for that.
FAIR’s Front Page contains daily news clippings about how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is represented in the media. It is also available by e-mail (you can sign up at http://www.fairlds.org).
FAIR app now available for Android
We are pleased to announce that we now have an app available for Android. It can be downloaded from Google Play. Listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, read the blog, and access other online FAIR content conveniently from your Android device. The ads contained in the app will help provide funds for FAIR.
Keeping the Faith 2b: Michael Ash and Shaken Faith Syndrome, pt 2
Keeping the Faith 2a: Michael Ash and Shaken Faith Syndrome, pt 1
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As a young, faithful member of the Church, Mike Ash found his faith to be shaken by the anti-Mormon book The Kingdom of Cults. He worked through that experience and later found his faith to be challenged once more by the movie the God Makers, and later by Church historical documents that were being “discovered” by a man named Mark Hoffman. In this interview, Brother Ash discusses how he was able to overcome doubts that were created by his encounters with anti-Mormon material and the Hoffman forgeries. He talks about the role apologetics played in strengthening his faith, how he became involved in FAIR, and he offers advice for family members and friends of those who are struggling with their faith.
Michael R. Ash, is the author of the book Shaken Faith Syndrome: Strengthening One’s Testimony in the Face of Criticism and Doubt, as well as the book, Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith. Both books are available for purchase online through the FAIR Bookstore.
The Mormon Moment: A Religion News Service Guide – Review
Much has been said in popular media about the so-called “Mormon Moment”. The accuracy and fairness of recent media coverage of Mormonism has been a mixed bag, to say the least. It is sad to admit that there are plenty of media personalities who know next to nothing about Mormonism, and yet feel unconstrained to opine on this or that subject relating to Mormon doctrine or history. Unsurprisingly, those who are the most ignorant of Mormonism usually choose to write about the most complex and controversial aspects of Mormonism, such as polygamy, Mormon racial history, and esoteric aspects of Mormon belief and practice best left untouched by non-Mormon novices of Mormon history and doctrine. (Andrew Sullivan, I’m looking at you.)
[Read more…] about The Mormon Moment: A Religion News Service Guide – Review
Vote for the Mormon FAIR-Cast!
What are the Podcast Awards?
For the second year in a row, the Mormon FAIR-Cast has been nominated to receive a Podcast Award in the “Religion Inspiration” category. The People’s Choice Podcast Awards are an annual set of awards given to the best podcasts as voted on by listeners. This year, over 9 million votes were cast and over 5,000 shows were nominated over the 15 day nomination period. Ten shows were chosen as nominees in each of 22 different categories. The Podcast Awards Ceremony will be held at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas on Jan 7th, 2013!
How was the Mormon FAIR-Cast Nominated?
Nominations were open for 15 days in October. Podcasts that received votes were reviewed by a 44 member committee that took a variety of factors into account. The total number of votes a podcast received accounted for only 40% of the grading, with the quality of the website’s design (15%), quality of sound (15%), quality of deliverance and show format (10%), and relevance of content (20%) also being considered.
Voting for the awards will begin today, November 1st and will end on November 15 at 11:59pm HST. While a single person could only cast one nominating vote, during final voting, each person (verified by IP address) may vote once each day during the 15 days that voting is open. In other words, a single person can cast 15 votes.
Tell Your Friends
Please support the Mormon FAIR-Cast by casting your vote at podcastawards.com each day that voting is open. Spread the word by telling your friends. Post a link with instructions on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Remind your friends to vote each day. And thank you for your continued support of the Mormon FAIR-Cast!
Keeping the Faith 1: Letter to a Doubter
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Often, doubt and uncertainty arise not from facts and evidence that actually undermine what we thought was true, but rather from assumptions we might be making about those facts. Our confidence in the gospel can be strengthened as we adopt more sound assumptions. However, we do not necessarily need to be alarmed in the face of uncertainty and doubt.
In this fireside presentation written by Terryl Givens, we find that in order for us to experience growth in this life, and to engage in an authentic test of our true desires, there must be grounds for doubt as well as belief.
This is the first episode in the Keeping the Faith series of podcasts. This series explores ways in which our faith can be challenged, and ways in which we can overcome those challenges.
This episode, is taken from a fireside presentation by Professor Terryl Givens given to the Single Adult Stake in Palo Alto, California in October of 2012. Brother Givens is a professor of religion and literature at the University of Richmond and author of many books and articles, including The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life, which he co-authored with his wife, Fiona. This presentation is entitled, “Letter to a Doubter,” and is read by Steve Densley, Jr. This address is presented here by permission of Terryl Givens. The full text of the address can be found here.
If there is an issue that you have been wondering about, you can often find the latest answers at the FAIR wiki, found at fairmormon.org. If you can’t find your answer there, feel free to pose your question to the FAIR apologists by visiting the FAIR contact page.
Tell your friends about us and help increase the popularity of this podcast by subscribing in iTunes and by writing a review.
Music for this episode was provided courtesy of Paul Cardall.
The opinions expressed in this podcast are not necessarily the views of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or of FAIR.
New Verse-by-Verse Resource on the Book of Mormon
One of our objectives at FAIR is to provide access to quality research on Latter-day Saint topics that is useful for the average Saint in their everyday study of the scriptures. To that end, as a new part of our FAIR Study Aids project, we have developed a verse-by-verse research index on the Book of Mormon. This can be accessed online, here:
http://en.fairmormon.org/FAIR_Study_Aids/Book_of_Mormon_Resources_by_chapter_and_verse
Here, what we have done is we have gone through hundreds of articles, essays, and research papers and cataloged them under the chapter and verse for which its contents are most relevant (in many cases, articles can be found under more than one scripture reference). See the page on Jacob, for example. There is also a page for research related to the introduction, history of its coming forth, and general themes that run throughout the book. In some cases, books and chapters also have “overview” materials available.
Our aim is make it easy for someone going through the scriptures to find research on what they are reading now. For example, if you are currently reading in Helaman 3, you can come to that section of the index and find several articles that are relevant to things going on in that chapter. In breaking things down by verse, we hope that someone who has a question while reading, say, Mosiah 17:13 will be able to find resources which help answer their questions quickly and easily.
It is far from complete or comprehensive at this point. It is a work in progress, but you can help! If you know any articles that are not there, please send them our way along what passage(s) you think it would best be cataloged under and we will add it to the index. Or, if you read an article that is on there and felt it applied to a different verse that it is not listed under, let us know and we will make the change.
We hope that this will prove a valuable resource in both your regular gospel study and in finding answers to concerns and criticisms raised against the Book of Mormon. With time, we may expand this to the other Standard Works.
